German sunbed truce as Brits fight holiday tax

TENSION between British and German holidaymakers for control of Majorca's sunloungers is likely to be forgotten this summer as the two camps unite to fight Europe's first tourist tax.

The unlikely coalition has resulted from an eco-tax passed by the Balearic government on Tuesday. From early next year a charge of up to £1.25 per person will be levied for every night spent in a hotel or apartment on Majorca - Britain and Germany's favourite holiday destination. The same goes for Menorca and Ibiza.

It means that a family of four, with two children over the age of 12, will have to pay up to £65 more for a fortnight's holiday. Although the money will be spent on repairing some of the damage caused by tourism and on improving the water supply, British tour operators have said that many holidaymakers will be deterred.

Paul Chandler, of the Travel Club of Upminister, east London, said: "It's a huge price rise. Majorca has always been a very popular destination and has remained popular despite some hefty price increases. But the market is very sensitive and people will not pay this."

Last year readers of The Telegraph voted Majorca the place "most ruined by mass tourism", Mr Chandler said, and improvements did need to be made. "Tourism in Majorca is a very lucrative industry, but like all geese that lay the golden egg, it can be killed."

In Germany a revolt is being spearheaded by Bild, the country's best-selling tabloid newspaper. The paper said that German holidaymakers, already stung by over-priced beer and a law which states that all menus must be in Spanish as well as German or English, would fight back - "We'll all simply go to Italy."

In the early Sixties, Majorca had fewer than 400,000 visitors a year. Last year there were more than 10 million and the strain on natural resources, property prices and the environment has triggered a series of protests by Majorcans. Two years ago 30,000 people - one in 10 of the indigenous population - marched on the capital demanding a halt to all further development.

But the island's hotel owners are acutely aware that the eco-tax could severely damage the industry that constitutes 86 per cent of the Balearic's GNP. The national government in Madrid agrees. It also fears that it could damage tourism throughout the country and said it was considering legal action.

Cristobal Montoro, the treasury minister, said: "The legality of this action is dubious. The central government will look carefully at this decision." Juan Flaquer, the president of Spain's hotel association, described the tax as a "discriminatory and brainless mistake".

The new-found solidarity between German and British holidaymakers is underlined by the fact that many of Britain's tour operators are now owned by German companies. Thomson, Britain's biggest operator, which sends half a million holidaymakers a year to Majorca, issued a joint statement with Preussag, its German parent company, which sends 1.75 million tourists there. The statement said: "We have always done our utmost for the improvement of the environmental situation in the Balearic islands. We fear negative consequences for the streams of tourists."

Francesc Antich, the president of the Balearic government, a coalition of socialists, greens and nationalists, claimed the opposite. He said: "It is an act of solidarity between holidaymakers and the local people."